8.29.2012

lookie what I did: an entrance makeover

A few months ago I decided that despite having no budget at all to pull off a makeover, my entrance just couldn't stay the way it was. It was stark and bland, and simply not an inviting space to come home to. Here's what it looked like at the time...

It's clear from these pics that it needed a bit of life added to it, but what isn't clear is that the floor was in really, really rough shape and never looked clean. The door also looks ok from this angle, but the knob had obviously been drilled into the wrong spot, and then the huge original hole had just been polyfilled when they fixed their mistake.

Since I was on a budget, and since I rent and can't wallpaper (which would have been my #1 choice by a mile), I decided that I'd complete as much of a transformation as I possibly could using only paint, a stencil I cut myself, and art I already owned. The results? None to shabby!

It's not perfect by a long shot, mostly because cutting your own stencil is a stupid thing to do (seriously, don't do it. I'm an idiot.) and also because I couldn't find gold paint no matter where I looked and ended up using acrylic paints from an art store (seriously, don't do that. I'm an idiot). But even without crisp lines I love it.

You can't see it all that well because I need a mat and so didn't want to show it yet, but I also painted the floors a grey-ish purple. So pretty. Once I have that mat and a new roman blind, I'll be all done!

Speaking of which, anyone have a lead on where to buy cheap, ready-made fabric roman blinds? IKEA no longer sells them (!!!) and I'm coming up empty everywhere else I've checked. Why is it that sometimes the simplest things can turn out to be the most complicated? That last 10% . . .